Two US lawmakers
have asked the Department of Justice to look into whether Binance made false
representations to lawmakers earlier in March about its business dealings and
ties to its local unit, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Senators Elizabeth
Warren and Chris Van Hollen made the request in a letter sent to the US Attorney General
Merrick Garland, according to the outlet.
In March,
Warren, Hollen and another US Senator Roger Marshall questioned Binance about its regulatory compliance and finances
as well as the independence of its US arm. In response, Patrick Hillmann, Binance’s Chief Strategy
Officer, said the crypto exchange prioritized local
regulatory compliance as it grew. He added that “Binance.com and Binance.US are separate
entities—contrary to suggestions in public reporting.”
However,
the senators in their letter said Binance and its US branch seemingly
“undermined this important investigation” by providing inaccurate information
to Congress, Bloomberg reported, quoting the letter.
SEC Moves against Binance
The report
about the senator’s letter emerged days after the US securities watchdog charged
Binance to court for allegedly operating illegal trading platforms,
offering unregistered crypto asset securities and commingling customers’ funds. The regulator
also claimed that Binance’s global entity and its US affiliates ‘were
intimately involved’ in running Binance.US, the trading platforms for US
investors.
In
addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Binance of
tweaking its controls to enable high-value US customers to trade on
Binance.com, contrary to the exchange’s public claim that US clients were
barred from using the global trading platform.
Today we charged Binance Holdings Ltd. (Binance); U.S.-based affiliate, BAM Trading Services Inc., which, together with Binance, operates https://t.co/swcxioZKVP; and their founder, Changpeng Zhao, with a variety of securities law violations.https://t.co/H1wgGgR5irpic.twitter.com/IWTb7Et86H
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) June 5, 2023
Responding
to the lawsuit, Binance accused SEC of rushing ‘to claim jurisdictional ground
from other regulators’ rather than seek to serve the interest of investors. The
crypto exchange said allegations that its users’ assets in the US are at risk
is “simply wrong.”
Our response to the SEC’s complaint.https://t.co/mgXxGTKr67
— Binance (@binance) June 5, 2023
